We went to breakfast in our bare feet arriving at the new parquet floored dining room at the allotted time of 8.45am. Of the eight of us in the dining room three of us were bare-footed, one had their slippers on and the other four were sporting sock wear of different descriptions. We were served by Spiros whose mannerisms and gesticulations reminded us of Detective Poirot………..we could have done with him yesterday to help us solve clue 17!
We had to select our breakfast the night before and both went for eggs on toast so we were very surprised to be served a full vegetarian breakfast with an egg on top of our toast. That request obviously got lost in translation! We didn’t like to tell them we only wanted eggs on toast, so not wanting to offend Spiros, or Elizabeth the cook, we tucked in, after which we returned to our room, feeling rather bloated packed and vacated at the allotted time of 10am. Not a minute more, not a minute less!
Maice was in the driving seat today with myself and SatNav Steve providing the directions. To be fair, he did most of the work and rather surprisingly we arrived at our destination in Harrogate, the Cairn Hotel just 45 minutes later. It was just shy of 11am. We half checked in then sat in reception with a coffee for the next two and a half hours sorting out the blog. We were having so much trouble with our website, and as we’re both IT illiterate and neither of us could fathom out what to do so we had no choice but to call the WIX help desk. They do say two heads are better than one but that certainly doesn’t translate to us! Maice called them, they called back and for the next forty two minutes Maice was engaged in a riveting conversation with Marian who apparently deduced that if we downloaded Google Chrome it would be the solution to all our problems. And she was right, it was! All sorted, we needed to get out and stretch our legs and a stroll around Harrogate sounded just the ticket. We love to explore new cities. Lo and behold, after a little wander around Harrogate we found ourselves sitting at the bar of The Ivy, sipping champagne. Well, we are on us holidays! For the record, we tried to get into Betty’s Tearooms but there was a rather long queue which is why we ended up next door at The Ivy!
After popping in to Betty’s shop for a couple of macaroons, which Maice consumed on the way back to the hotel we finally checked ourselves and our luggage in. Taking the lift up to the second floor we both became very wistful……it reminded us so much of being on holiday overseas. Ah, it’s the little things like this that remind us of our travels overseas.
Our visit to Harrogate wasn’t just for a mooch around, it was to meet a friend and ex-colleague Lisa, who I worked with in Kefalonia back in the day. Armed with a bottle of Prosecco, courtesy of Morrish and Banham we followed the directions on our locally printed map and ten minutes later we were sat in her lounge with guess what, a glass of Prosecco. It was so lovely to see her, and she hadn’t changed a bit even though it was fourteen years ago that I’d last seen her. Two bottles of Prosecco later we’d reminisced and managed to catch up on all those years of absence until her partner Ian came in and next thing we know we’re sat in a rather lovely restaurant in Harrogate called Lucia with yes, another glass of Prosecco! And, in between the two bottles of Prosecco we girlies managed to consume we chatted, we laughed and a good time was had by all. It’s been so lovely to catch up after all these years.
Having consumed so much alcohol beverage we were fortunate our hotel was just up the road. In SatNav Steve speak we were literally……’in 250 yards turn left and you have reached your destination’! We said our goodbyes to Lisa and Ian with promises to keep in touch and made our way up in the lift to our room. Our beds were calling us…………..
M&A xx